. >> reporter: the president and house speaker john boehner each are drawing a line in the sand over letting the bush era tax cuts expire for americans making more than $250,000 a year. >> instead of raising tax rates on the american people and accepting the damage it will do to our economy, let's start to actually solve the problem. >> reporter: the speaker wants a tax overhaul that raises money by cutting loopholes. if they can't hammer out a spending deal by year's end, the nation goes over the so-called fiscal cliff. taxes go up for everyone. an average of almost $3,500 per household. and there will be deep automatic spending cuts in both domestic spending that could hobble the economy. they want the president to address the real problem. >> and the real problem is uncontrolled entitlement spending, and the government that has grown massively. >> reporter: democrats say republicans are going to have to compromise. just like the president and his party did after getting walloped in the 2010 elections. >> we cut $900 billion in spending that we didn't like, painful to us. >> report